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Advantage of Personal Contact 



Who has the advantage — the salfesman of a large himber coucern 

 with branch offices and a general sales-office, or the salesman for a 

 small wholesaler who is in direcf touch with the principals of his 

 concern? That question has been brought up time and again and 

 the writer claims that the latter "has it on" the salesman of 

 the former in many ways. In the first place the former has nothing 

 but a set of rules to go by and a system to follow out. If he 

 takes an order provisionally it has to go through the system 

 before it finally gets back to him or his customer and delays are 

 fatal in many cases. Illustrating this, a large hardwood buyer 

 wanted a car of clear saps poplar and talked with the local 

 salesman for one of our largest concerns. The salesman's stock- 

 list showed one or two cars and he took the order at a good price 

 because the buyer wanted it promptly. After a wait of over a 

 week the general sales-office returned the order, saying that one 

 of the other offices had sold that stock about a week before the 

 order was booked. Meantime that buyer had been offered several 

 other cars by wholesalers and all at lower prices. To make a long 

 story short, when the buyer had that order returned from the 

 company, he called up one of the local wholesalers and bought a 

 ear that was in transit. Now while this might never happen again, 

 it left a bad impression with the buyer and when the first-men- 

 tioned salesman called again he needed another car of poplar, 

 but did not consider that sawmill concern because he didn 't know 

 whether he would get his stock or not. Of course some of you 

 will say that this is an exceptional case, but if you are interested 

 enough to find out, just ask any of your customers whom they would 

 rather do business with — a small, personal-contact wholesaler or 

 a large concern with "much-system-to-go-through-with-before- 

 they-know-where-they-are-at. " The lumber business isn't any too 

 well systematized at best and a delay in quoting, in accepting an 

 order, in shipping or in holding up an order on account of investi- 

 gation of credit, is dangerous and is not conducive to further 

 business. The small local concern, on the other hand, is in direct 

 relationship with its local customers and generally has all the 

 information in its office so that it is either "yes" or "no." 



Again, the salesman for the local concern has a better chance 

 of making more money for himself, as his efforts are directly seen 

 by the principals of the concern, and consequently is able to 

 advance faster than with a larger concern. Where the salasraan 

 for a large concern is held down to a set of strict rules, the other 

 man has the advantage of taking the matter up with his principals 

 — in many cases he can take orders where the other man cannot. 



That brings us up to the question of credits. You must realize 

 that a large concern is in charge of a sales-manager whose duty 

 is to ever put sales on the increase. Then there is the manager 

 of a credit department. These two men work together, but the 

 results are generally far. from satisfactory. The sales-manager 

 wants to boost the sales; the credit manager wants to lose as 

 little as possible for his concern. Each man's job depends on bis 

 ability to do it well. The credit manager in nine cases out of 

 ten goes entirely by the agency reports and turns down from five 

 to ten per cent of all business offered. If an order is taken and 

 held up by the credit department for information there are 1h^ 

 delays which were mentioned above. And so, with hard and fast 

 rules to go by, the large company is at a disadvantage and will lose 

 many sales. And another thing — when the credit manager is not 

 satisfied he simply says that the company will ship the car and 

 attach sight-draft with bill-of -lading, to which the buyer will 

 reply that he can buy all he wants on his own terms and orders 

 cancellation. 



It has been the writer's experience that the rating of a pros- 

 pective new customer counts for much less than a close knowledge 

 of local conditions, and that is why most of the wholesalers oper- ' 

 ating in one locality alone get business that the larger concerns 

 lose. Of course, heads of large concerns will immediately take 



exception to that statement and say that they could put men of 

 executive ability in charge of their local offices and carry out the 

 same idea. Well, you couldn't do it! Why? Because you couldn't 

 pay them enough money and they can make more in their positions 

 as wholesalers. You know right well that when you get aa 

 exceptional man you cannot hold him, for he can make more money 

 by himself. 



Being in personal contact with the trade in a certain locality, 

 the writer, either in personal contact with the consumers directly 

 or through the local salesmen, finds that credit should be judged 

 as follows: First, the capacity of the men running the concern, 

 and how they conduct it, their methods, etc. — that is the most 

 important; second, the character of these men and their records; 

 third, the capital. That's a system of the three "c's" (capacity, 

 character and capital) and if any of the three are lacking, let it 

 be capital. For example, if a man had a fair credit rating and 

 a large capitalization, but did not know his business or was. 

 crooked, woidd you advance stock to him? Again, if he had the 

 capacity and capital, yet you knew that there were points about 

 his character or past records that would be detrimental to his 

 business, would you sell him? But the man who has the capacity,, 

 working along the right lines, pushing for business, is a hard 

 worker and has the character, sell him, regardless of his capitaliza- 

 tion. Study of a man's methods by close personal contact (and,, 

 as you see, it can be done this way only by men who are qualified 

 to judge) shows you at once whether you will trust him or not.. 



A case in the East typifies the above. A large maker of a spe- 

 cial cabinet with a national reputation has no rating. He does not 

 make any statements and therefore what reports you secure are 

 not encouraging. The writer handed his report to one of his 

 friends, the owner of a large southern mill, and asked whether 

 or not he would sell him. Indeed, he wouldn't sell them on any 

 such report. Yet this same millman was very much surprised to. 

 learn that the writer had put a number of high-priced cars in, 

 there and was still shipping and that most of the bills had been 

 discounted. Then he said, "Well, you're right on the ground with 

 him and can watch him closer than I." That comes pretty near 

 proving the writer's claim, doesn't it? To go further into detail 

 about this consumer — he is as straight as a die, a hard worker, 

 has a splendid organization, his plant represents top-notch effi- 

 ciency, he knows his costs, he makes a splendid profit per cabinet 

 and he can't turn the work out fast enough. He has just doubled 

 the capacity of his plant. The writer one day asked this con- 

 sumer why he didn't make out a statement, and he answered,. 

 "It's none of anybody's business but my own. If people want 

 to sell me, they must judge for themselves (get that — it means 

 personal contact again). You sell me because you know I'm a 

 good risk. If you didn't you wouldn't sell me. Another thing, I 

 don't want to do business with people in far-off places because;. 

 I can getter better service from my local sources of buying. If I 

 find I can't get credit I'll make a statement, but as long as I can, 

 what's the use?" 



In the general run of business you will find many good concerns 

 who won't make a statement, but that pay cash for all they bu_y. 

 If you went through their plants and saw the way they did 

 business 3'ou'd trust them, yet you can't judge these things from 

 a distance — and that is why you have to pass up the business. 



And all this brings us right back to the old question — the logical 

 trade channel. When we say logical, we must give a reason, and' 

 that reason is, as it always has been, that it is the lowest-sales- 

 cost-per-thousand feet. That this is being gradually recognized by 

 the mills who formerly thought they had "put one over" on the- 

 wholesalers by trying to deal with the consumer direct, is being 

 evinced more and more as time goes on — that is, that the lowest- 

 cost is the principal reason. Then there is the credit end, the fact 



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